• Close window

CLIPC: Constructing Europe's Climate Information Portal

CLIPC provides access to Europe's climate data and information.

Use Cases

A number of use cases has been developed to demonstrate how the functionalities of the CLIPC Impacts Indicator Toolbox can be used to identify, select, compare, combine and rank indicators, for applications in research or decision-support support in policy and practice situations. These cases are simplified, stylized descriptions of technical steps to be taken in the portal. They do not represent real-world examples of scientific analysis or assessment, for which not only other indicators may be required but which also requires more in-depth analyses and interpretation of results by experts.
 

  • Advising a forest land purchase
    A forestry consultant has been contracted by a wealthy, forest-owning family who wants to purchase more forest land in southern Germany, Austria, Slovakia or the Czech Republic in order to expand their beech tree portfolio. With a long-term perspective they want the new forests to be located in climatically favourable conditions and in a region where the forest area is expected to increase, i.e. forest is not under development pressure vis-à-vis other land-uses like settlements or agriculture. 
     
  • Assessing heat stress in urban areas (in development)
    In the perspective of delineating a new climateclimate
    Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the average weather, or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for averaging these variables is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system.
    adaptationadaptation
    The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects.
    strategy, a group of EU decision-makers ask an impact researcher to identify the regions within the Iberian Peninsula where the combined effect of temperature change and urbanization is expected to contribute to an increase in heat-stress of the population. Furthermore the impact researcher is asked to provide a more in-depth assessment of future heat-stress riskrisk
    often taken to be the product of the probability of an event and the severity of its consequences. In statistical terms, this can be expressed as Risk(Y)=Pr(X) C(Y|X), where Pr is the probability, C is the cost, X is a variable describing the magnitude of the event, and Y is a sector or region.
    for the city of Lisbon where a pilot early warning system is to be tested.


  • Downhill skiing tourism
    The European Commission aims to (fictitiously) initiate a funding programme for regions which rely heavily on winter tourism, because climate changeclimate change
    Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings such as modulations of the solar cycles, volcanic eruptions and persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Note that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as: 'a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods'. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and climate variability attributa
    is expected to negatively affect skiing conditions there. The (ficititious) European Winter Tourism Federation (EWTF) is lobbying on behalf of these regions and wants to demonstrate how many regions are possibly affected and which regions are especially in need of funding. Therefore, the EWTF contracts a consultant to identify those skiing regions which are projected to be most affected by warming winter climate.

  • Finding the geographic sensitivitysensitivity
    The degree to which a system or species is affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate variability or change. The effect may be direct (e.g., a change in crop yield in response to a change in the mean, range or variability of temperature) or indirect (e.g., damages caused by an increase in the frequency of coastal flooding due to sea-level rise).
    of vegetation growth to temperature in Europe

    In the course of a long drive during early spring, an impact researcher becomes puzzled as to why vegetation growth in some geographic locations in central Europe appears to be well underway, while in other locations it has not even started, even though the ambient temperatures in all locations appear to be the same. He sets out to determine the geographic sensitivity of vegetation growth to temperature in Europe.

  • Raising awareness on agricultural production for Southern France
    An environmental agency is commissioned to hold a workshop about climate change and its associated impacts on agricultural production for Southern France. For the purposes of awareness raising the organization decides that the best way is to narrow the complex issue of “agricultural production” – something farmers are interested in - to the use of simpler metrics, namely, future change in the value of yearly precipitation.

  • Advising on sea-level rise data to a company investing in a coastal resort in Lagos
    An environmental consultant is commissioned to provide information of available data on sea-level rise to a company investing in a coastal resort in Lagos - a touristic city in the south of Portugal – for the purposes of conduct a risk analysis of flooding due to climate change.

  • Advice on data regarding extreme rainfall projections to an insurance company
    A climate scientist is asked for advice on data regarding extreme rainfall projections by an insurance company for the purpose of differentiating flood damage insurance rates between different regions in France.

  • Comparison of snow-off dates (in Northern Europe)
    An impact researcher would like to estimate the timing of the peak flying date of a spring-flying insect species (a moth) that has started to cause damages in forests in recent years in Northern Europe. This information is required for planning of appropriate pest protection measuresmeasures
    In climate policy, measures are technologies, processes, and practices that contribute to mitigation, for example renewable energy technologies, waste minimization processes and public transport commuting practices.
    . He knows that the peak flying date of the moth species is related to the timing of snow melt.